History of Third Party Candidates



It was 1832, when for the first time in American history, a third party challenged the major two political parties.The Anti-Masonic Party carried 8% of the popular vote and one state. In 1848 former Democratic President Martin Van Buren was the presidential candidate of the anti-slavery Free-Soil Party. He wins 10% of the popular vote and is credited with taking enough votes away from the Democratic candidate to help Whig candidate Zachary Taylor win the election. And in 1856, another former president Milliard Fillmore runs as the presidential candidate of the Know-Nothings and Whig Party remnants (American Party) and wins 22% of the popular vote and 8 electoral votes.
In 1912, former Republican President Theodore Roosevelt formed the Progressive (or Bull-Moose) party. It was the first time in American history that a third-party candidate receives more votes (electoral and popular) than one of the major two parties when Roosevelt received 88 electoral votes and the incumbent Republican President William Taft received just 8 while the Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson received 435 electoral votes.
In more modern times, three recent presidential elections were probably decided by third-party candidates. In 1968, Richard Nixon, a Republican, narrowly defeated Democrat Hubert Humphrey by less than 1% in the popular vote as many Southern Democrats supported Governor George Wallace of the American Independent Party who won 13+% of the popular vote and 46 electoral votes. In 1992, Democrat Bill Clinton won the presidential election with only 43% of the popular vote over the incumbent President George H.W. Bush because businessman Ross Perot of the Reform Party wins 19% of the popular vote and takes votes from President Bush.
And finally in 2000, George W. Bush, the Republican candidate won a disputed election over Democrat Al Gore who won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote by 4. Green Party candidate, Ralph Nader, took 2.74% of the popular vote that may otherwise have been cast for Gore.
Check future entries for the 2012 election third-party candidates.

Nativist Riots in Philadelphia

                                            St. Augustine's Church on fire
The "know nothings" or the Know Nothing Party was a nativist American political movement from 1852-1860. It was a secret society whose members professed ignorance about it and whose aim was to keep control of the government in the hands of native citizens. The movement was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by Irish Catholic immigrants, who were often regarded as hostile to US values and controlled by the Pope in Rome. The largely middle-class and entirely Protestant membership fragmented over the issue of slavery. Most ended up joining the Republican Party by the time of the 1860 Presidential election. Originating in New York in 1843 as the American Republican Party, the movement spread to other states as the Native American Party and became a national party in 1845. In 1855 it renamed itself the American Party. The origin of the "Know Nothing" term was in the semi-secret organization of the party. When a member was asked about its activities, he was supposed to reply, "I know nothing." The party was very anti-immigrant and especially anti-Catholic which led to the violent Nativist Riots in New York, Philadelphia and other cities and states where there was a sizable Irish-Catholic presence. To read about the Nativist Riots in Philadelphia and to answer your homework questions, go to the St. Philip Neri Parish History found under U.S. Presidents Useful Links.

First Presidential Debate: October 3, 2012

Wednesday night will be the first televised Presidential debate of three scheduled. See the schedule below of the other debate dates. Our Wednesday night class will start on time at 7PM and finish early at 8:50PM. It will be carried on Network TV, streamed live on the Internet and can be heard live on FM 89.9 the Public Radio station in Wheeling WV. Details of the debate are as follows:

Topic: Domestic policy
Air Time: 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time
Location: University of Denver in Denver, Colorado
Sponsor: Commission on Presidential Debates
Participants: President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney
Moderator: Jim Lehrer (Host of NewsHour on PBS)

The debate will focus on domestic policy and be divided into six time segments of approximately 15 minutes each on topics to be selected by the moderator and announced several weeks before the debate.
The moderator will open each segment with a question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the topic.
Additional Homework Assignment: Identify four areas of domestic policy in which the two candidates clearly take opposite positions and be prepared to discuss in class. This is in addition to Homework Assignment Week 5.

Polling the Presidential & Congressional Races

REMEMBER - It takes 270 electoral votes to win the Presidential race. A number of polling organizations will be surveying potential voters for their presidential preferences between now and Election day. Each of the major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX) and Major News Media (NY Times, Newsweek etc) as well as independent polling firms such as Zogby & Rasmussen will be publishing weekly if not daily polls of voters preferences. Watch this site for the most up-to-date predictions. CLICK ON
Map  for a daily update on elections around the country involving U.S. representatives & Senators and the latest presidential polls.

Week 2: Origins of the Presidency

In week 2, we examined the three basic forms of government identified by Aristotle (384-322 BC) and how these forms were modified by the British national government and the American colonies. Events leading up to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were highlighted to include: the Continental Congresses, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, The Revolutionary War and the Articles of Confederation, French and American victory at the Battle of Yorktown, peace with England and the Treaty of Paris.  During the Constitutional Convention, three proposals to select a president were considered and seven times the method was changed. Finally, the  indirect election method was chosen in which popular sentiment could be expressed by voting for intermediaries called presidential electors which were to be chosen by states in a manner designated by each state legislature.  During the period from the drafting and the proposed federal Constitution in 1787 to its ratification in 1789, there was an intense debate on ratification in the colonies and the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist papers played an important role in debating how this new government would operate and why this form of government was the best choice for the United States of America. A copy of the handout used in Class 2 and homework assignment can be found on the right hand side of the blog. To answer the homework assignment, you can use the Useful Links found on the bottom right of this blog. Next week we will look at the Evolution of the Presidential Office.

The Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers were a series of articles written in 1787 and 1788 under the pen name of Publius by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. The purpose of The Federalist Papers was to gain popular support for the then-proposed Constitution. You can view the 85 essays outlining this new type of government planned for the U.S. of America by viewing: http://www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/

The arguments against ratification of the Constitution appeared at the same time in various forms and by various authors , most of whom used a pseudonym such as "Centinel", "Cato", "Brutus" and "The Federal Farmer". Collectively, these writings became known as the Anti-Federalist Papers. They contain warnings of dangers from tyranny that weaknesses in the proposed Constitution did not adequately  provide against  and while some of those weaknesses were corrected by adoption of the Bill of Rights, others remained, and some of these dangers are now coming to pass. The Anti-Federalist Papers can be viewed on the same site above.

Presidential & Vice-Presidential Debates

The schedule has been published with the following dates  for the OBAMA-ROMNEY Presidental debates as follows:
        Oct 3      -->  Denver
        Oct 16    -->  Hempstead, NY  (a town-hall debate)
        Oct 22    -->  Boca-Raton, FL (foreign policy debate)

The BIDEN-RYAN Vice-Presidential Debate will be on October 11 in Danville, Ky

Week 1: Review of Course & Declaration of Independence

This first week we reviewed the Course Syllabus and the Schedule of Classes  (see right hand side of blog). We also took a quick tour of the World Almanac and pointed out the parts of the Almanac that will be useful for our classes and homework assignments. In class we reviewed events leading up to July 4, 1776 and the adoption of the Declaration of Independence  and the events leading to August 2,1776 when 54 of the eventual 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence signed the engrossed copy on parchment in the Continental Congress. We then watched scenes from the movie "1776" after the initial reading of the Declaration resulted in debate, alterations, deletions and amendments until the final vote culminating in the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. A copy of the handout used in Class 1 and homework assignment can be found on the right hand side of the blog. To answer your homework assignment, you can use the Useful Links found on the bottom right of this blog. Next week we will look at the Constitutional Convention and the Origins of the Presidency.